Budakhan Mindphone EP

Interscope / Nothing;
1999

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Last year, Squarepusher broke out of the drill-n-bass scene with a brand new
record that offered a totally different sound. Though audiences were used to
the skittering, rapid- fire electronic beats, video game sound effects and tinny
keyboards of his prior releases, and despite his prior release, an EP he called
Big Loada, garnering him the most critical acclaim of his entire career,
the Squarepusher swapped genres. He released Music is Rotted One Note,
a strictly jazz affair with no sequencers or breakbeats to be found, a total
shock to fans and critics alike.

Tom Jenkinson's gone in a similar direction on his new seven- track EP,
Budakhan Mindphone. It's slightly less jazzy than Rotted One
Note-- almost a combination of Squarepusher's two sounds. The opening
track, "Iambic 5 Poetry," is a late-nite '70s gangsta shuffle, boasting
warm, orchestra- emulating keyboards, gentle feedback and a glockenspiel.
It perfectly encapsulates the feel of a lonely and humid summer night.
This is the shit that's gonna get sampled by rap groups in 2015.

Meanwhile, tracks like the ambient "The
Tide," the swaggering, dischordant tones and tunnel reverb of "Splask"
and the junk rhythm fest of "Gong Acid" show Jenkinson's horizons are
ever- expanding. Budakhan Mindphone proves that Squarepusher
clearly intends to keep on keepin' on, making new noise the likes of
which the world may otherwise never have heard.